In all the places I’ve traveled, from Thailand to Peru, my clothes always smelled fresh and clean after paying someone to wash them for me. And I mean everywhere – even the poorest parts of Cambodia. The kind of places where if a person owns a washing machine (not even a dryer), they’re in business.

“How do they do it?” I always wondered. I thought it was some exotic trade secret, or maybe they scrubbed the clothes by hand? Pounding them with huge tropical flower pedals and incensing them with delectable oils.

I now know their secret. They were using a washing machine less than 30 years old.

Our old faithful broke down a few days ago so Pop had to buy us a new machine. I can’t get over how good everything smells that comes out of it.

Last week I slumped my head down into the well of our old washer and gave it a whiff. It smelled like an old damp swamp sock.

Not anymore. Melly shall smell no more!

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The woman who’s suing me broke up with her boyfriend recently. How do I know this? Because he called to tell me. Apparently she cheated on her husband 6 times with big beefy black men – a character trait I should know about.

Her ex-boyfriend also knows the guy who runs the Cheshire Harald and they want to write a first page cover story about me. Apparently the guy who runs our little town’s paper thinks I’m awesome. I swear I never met him.

Her ex-boyfriend wants us to talk and to be friends. I said no to both the news story, and to us being friends.

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I went on the Cheshire Harald website the other day while wasting time until my client arrived. A 34 year old woman from my town died. “Who is this woman?” I wondered.

Her obituary didn’t say much. Just that she was an EMT and is survived by so-and-so. She looked healthy and happy in her EMT uniform on her obituary pic.

I searched her on Facebook. We have 11 or so mutual friends.

Then I googled her.

First thing that popped up when I googled her name was 10-15 articles all depicting her arrest. Her and her friend robbed their mutual friends of over $15,000 in jewelry. She looked like a drugged out mess in her mug shot. The guy she was with looked like a real dirt bag.

My findings conclude that she most likely OD’d from fentanyl laced heroine. Either purposely or not.

Her linkedin account said she was unemployed. Why have a Linkedin account to post to the world that you’re unemployed?

Internet is a cruel truth-teller even after we die. I never knew her but that’s how I’ll remember her.

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I had a realization yesterday while I was massaging my client. That’s the one thing I miss about giving massages – the realizations.

Two weeks ago during my pool league match, They pit me against an older woman who hit her prime in the 80’s so she still looked straight out of the 80’s. She was a level 2, just like me.

Anyway, she kicked my ass in both games. I was devastated and my team felt my devastation.

So last Tuesday, 3 days ago, I decided to laugh it off no matter what happens. I made up my mind to play my best game and have fun while doing it. I made it a point specifically to decide on this before I drove down to the billiards hall.

We can tell ourselves to do anything, but we don’t actually listen to our own advice. We’re too preoccupied with habits and thinking patterns. But last Tuesday I bypassed my habits and thinking patterns so to make room for this new belief, this new perception and fully divulge myself in it.

It’s about paving the way for choice. And putting myself aside to make room for it.

We can make choices. We can decide on anything. But there’s more to it than just that. This is where people get confounded and stop believing they are in control.

I joined a pool league so I can drink beer, play pool, and enjoy a little healthy competition while doing it. I didn’t join to make friends. So when I first arrive early at the pool hall, my main aim is to grab a beer and practice. I get so pissed when people want to chat during my precious practice time – it’s uber annoying. I NEED to practice.

But this is part of my problem – if I make a choice to relax, have fun, and play my best – there’s no room to get pissed at people who want to talk to me. By allowing myself to get pissed, I’m not in control. The “choice” I made beforehand is invalid, forgo, forfeit. I can’t let go of past beliefs. Beliefs that tell me I need to practice in order to get better and I can only have fun and relax as long as I’m playing well – ergo, I NEED to practice, not chat, before a match.

People who play pool regularly know that 99% of the game is built on confidence. The remaining 1% is skill.

I can’t be confident if I believe I’m lacking in practice – that’s a dichotomy. So right off the bat, I’m failing at the choice I made to play well. I’m failing the minute I arrive to the pool hall and see a swarm of people making their way over to me. I can’t play my best game if I’m not confident to do so. And according to my old belief, I need to practice in order to feel confident.

Some choices are easy, some are hard. A simple yes or no, where to eat, what color to paint your walls with – those are open and shut. Not letting the Cheshire Herald do a cover story on me? An easy no.

But choosing not to get angry anymore, choosing not to drink alcohol anymore, the choice to do better in school, be a better person, exercise regularly….these are open-ended choices. They have more moving parts.

My choice to relax, have fun, and play my best game has a lot of moving parts that I wouldn’t have known about if I didn’t make that choice to begin with.

The law of attraction comes into play. The more moving parts that can trip you up, the more likely you will fail in the choices you make. Everything must match up with your choice. It’s not about “frequencies” or any of that bullshit, it’s about matching your unconscious beliefs with your current choices.

All you need to do is keep reminding yourself.

My friend Chris started talking to me as soon as I arrived at the pool hall.

Rational Brain – “If you think you need to practice, that means you’re not confident. Stay confident no matter what and have fun no matter what.”

Me – “Having fun feels very similar to having confidence.”

Rational Brain – “Yes! You can trick your brain into having confidence as long as you’re having fun.”

I whooped my opponents ass in both games and won myself another patch. Next week I’ll have to sandbag.

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It’s now many days later. I ordered my Ebike July 10th and now it’s July 16th. I can NOT wait to get it. I’m watching YouTube video’s about bike touring and seeing all that can go wrong. I’m going to need some workable knowledge in case I need to fix my motor or repair a flat. One guy blew out his throttle 6 times in one bike tour, something I know nothing about repairing.

Zen and the Art of Ebike maintenance. I wish that was a book.

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I’m trying to spend all my barter network money so I can get out of their system. I just bought a $1000 pool cue with my barter network money. The case it came with is $300 alone. I got an OB cue, a high performance non-deflective cue. It’s what the pro’s use.

I’m really excited to use it. Sal, the owner of Shooter’s (where I picked up the cue), let me practice on it a bit but I need more hands-on time to really understand the difference between it and my old cue that Erika gave me.

I know for certain that break cue’s make a huge difference in the way each stick breaks the balls up, but a players cue? Not so sure about that. Why $1000? It’s just a stick?!

I’m hoping none of the other teams catch on that it’s a $1000 stick. My lips are sealed. No lever 2 player should be caught dead with a stick that pricey, or they’re no longer a level 2. I’ll tell Nicole, but that’s it. Nicole is my team captain and she became a very good friend of mine. She knows my brother and her sister graduated high school with me.